Riders Preferred Membership
Shop by Vehicle
Track Order
Contact Us
"But let’s be honest, if your Superbike is reaching 200 horsepower or more, it’s impossible to argue that it belongs on the street. It really doesn’t, anymore.”
Those were the famous words uttered by KTM CEO Stefan Pierer when the Austrian marque discontinued its 1190 RC8 sport bike in 2015. Pierer’s decision didn’t just catch flack from die-hard RC8 fans. It also bordered on hypocrisy, considering KTM continued offering the fire-breathing 1290/1390 Super Duke. Nevertheless, the RC 390 remained the only street-legal sport bike in KTM’s lineup for the past decade.
That will end in 2025, when the road-homologated KTM 990 RC R makes its debut.
The prototype
“A lot of fans might think that [the 990 RC R is] a KTM 990 Duke with fairings on it,” admitted KTM Head of Global Marketing Riaan Neveling. “I can tell you now, it’s absolutely not that.”
What the 990 RC R is, at the moment, at least, is a prototype. Like all KTM sport bikes and naked bikes, it features a steel frame, but increased stiffness and a forward weight bias reportedly improve feel and response. KTM notes that the steering head angle is 25 degrees. Without being privy to the offset, however, we won’t know rake and trail numbers until a later date.
Within that model-specific frame rests the firm’s 947 cc LC8c parallel twin. In RC R form, it will produce a claimed 126 horsepower and 76 foot-pounds of torque (at 10,500 rpm). Compared to the 990 Duke, the mill gains three ponies. The peak torque figure remains unchanged but it arrives 3,750 rpm later. Such a tune is typical for a track-friendly sport bike. So is a shifter that switches between standard and race-shift, which the 990 RC R will proudly boast.
Clip-ons and a newly shaped fuel tank adapt the ergonomics to modern supersport standards. “It has all of the performance of a supersport bike but you can ride it all day,” claimed Matthew West, Lead Product Strategy Consultant at KTM's partner design agency KISKA. The RC R’s adjustable footrests probably have something to do with that purported versatility.
In addition to the road-legal RC R, KTM will release the 990 RC R Track edition. The closed-course variant will remove street essentials (lighting, license plate bracket, etc) and add revised racing bodywork. Extra crash protection and a full exhaust system will complete the track-only transformation. The Ready to Race brand even plans to make good on its slogan by entering the 990 RC R prototype in non-point-scoring rounds of the European Supersport series.
KTM slates the road-going 900 RC R for an early 2025 debut while the 990 RC R Track will follow in Q2 2025. Until then, fans can keep up with the platform’s development by following the brand’s dedicated 990 RC R YouTube series.
KTM’s return to the supersport class may have been a long time coming, but everything points to Team Orange coming back in force in 2025.
Image Gallery
